Innocence
by The Laughing Phoenix
Summary: "Ururu's arrival at the Urahara Shoten was the result of a full-blown rescue mission."


Title: Innocence

Summary: "Ururu's arrival at the Urahara Shoten was the result of a full-blown rescue mission."

**The Laughing Phoenix** does not own Bleach, nor does she own Black Cat, which heavily influenced this one-shot.

* * *

_It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity._

_~Albert Einstein_

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

One blistering hot August evening, Hirako Shinji could be found wandering the outskirts of Beijing, far away from the tourist-ridden Forbidden City and temples. Dust glittered in the fading sunlight, kicked up by his stride as he passed factory blocks and worker's dorms interspersed with stretches of open land, places the developers hadn't quite reached yet. His internal reflections were interrupted by a distant roar and flash of reiatsu, one he immediately identified as Hollow. Not thirty seconds after it appeared, however, it vanished, cut off abruptly in a way that told Shinji something had killed it.

Ordinarily, Shinji would have turned right around and walked away. A battalion of Shinigami was assigned to Beijing and its surroundings, and while he was more than confident in his abilities should it come to a fight, he'd far prefer to remain off the Gotei 13's radar. But he'd felt the reiatsu surge of whatever had killed the Hollow, faint in comparison to the predators, and it hadn't been a Shinigiami, nor another Hollow. It had felt human.

Curiosity piqued, Shinji made his way to the site of the Hollow's death. When he arrived, he found himself looking at little girl, perhaps eight years old if he was any judge, standing in an open field between two factories. She was, oddly enough, dressed in pajamas and her feet were bare.

The girl turned around, walking slowly towards the wall of one of the buildings. As she approached, she was engulfed by a bevy of adults in white coats, who'd been huddled around the corner. One examined her eyes with a penlight, another picked up her wrist to check her pulse, while a third pulled a hypodermic needle from its case and drew blood from the other arm. A fourth stood nearby, scribbling madly on a clipboard as the others dictated. Another group of adults spread out across the field, picking up crates and removing instruments Shinji hadn't noticed earlier, loading them into one of the two vans that had pulled around the corner of the building. One of the white-coated women wrapped a blanket around the girl's shoulders before helping her into one of the vans. Less than fifteen minutes after Shinji arrived, the humans were gone, with only the tracks of their tires in the dirt to show their passing.

The Vizard sat on one of the roofs, deep in thought. Either that had been an experiment and the little girl had been the subject, or he was Aizen Sosuke's grandma. She'd not been dressed in pajamas as he'd first thought, but in hospital scrubs. A slow burn began in his gut, and in the back of his mind he could feel his inner Hollow raise its cobra-crowned head. Controlling himself with practice so ingrained as to become habit, he stood, having come to a decision. He'd follow them, try to get a better feel for what was going on.

Stepping up off the roof and into the air, Shinji followed the vans as they drove away from the city. Staying far enough above and behind to keep from being noticed, he watched as they left the factories behind and eventually approached a lone complex of buildings, sitting on enough land to fit the entire Forbidden City comfortably inside. The vans pulled up in front of one of the wings to the largest building, disgorging the girl and about half of the white-coats.

Shinji waited until the vans had pulled away before moving closer, taking the time to examine the security systems. He was rather impressed despite himself. His training would get him through without setting anything off, but he'd have to pay attention to what he was doing, which was far more than most human security could manage.

Checking window after window, he finally found the girl's room. It looked like a hospital room, the main piece of furniture being a bed with recessed railings and wheels that could be unlocked, allowing it to double as a gurney. She also had a small nightstand, bare except for a bottle of water, and a chair rested next to the bed. There was nothing on the walls, which were painted an institutional white. The girl looked to be asleep, curled up on her side under the blanket, back to the single, high window. Shinji gave the window another look. The bottom panel might lift two feet, but not much more, and it was only about a foot wide. He could get in, but he'd need to cut away or take off the screen first, and…yes, that was an alarm wired into the frame. Borrowing a little from the Hollow's keener senses, he began to examine the frame in closer detail, trying to find a way to cut off the alarm.

Movement in front of him made him look up. The little girl was kneeling on the inner sill of the window, watching him. Shinji blinked. When had she done that? More importantly, how did a girl less than five feet tall manage to reach a windowsill four feet off the ground? He met the girl's oddly blank eyes, and was forced to throw himself backward as she reached for him, slamming through the glass with complete disregard for the cuts she was getting.

Shinji leapt into the air, watching the girl as she watched him through wide, blank eyes. "Danger," she said softly, and leapt after him. The Vizard dodged in mid-air, and got another shock as she landed on the air and changed direction to follow him, pushing off against the air itself with about the same level of finesse as the older Academy students. "Danger," she said again, and Shinji used shunpo to dodge back out of her way.

"Dangers must be destroyed," the girl whispered, launching herself at the Vizard. He stepped sideways, and an eyebrow went up as the punch that had missed him left radiating cracks in the wall.

"Easy there kid," Shinji said softly, keeping his voice calm. "I'm not your enemy."

"Danger," the girl said again. Shinji couldn't even tell if she'd heard him. The snap of floodlights turning on behind him had him glancing back at the mansion. An alarm must have gone off when the girl broke her window, and the first response was gearing up.

It was high time he was no longer there.

Jumping into shunpo, Shinji darted away from the girl, out of her line of sight, and landed on the other side of the building, cloaking his reiatsu as well as he could. Listening quietly as some of the adults coaxed the girl back inside, the rest spreading out to search for the disturbance, he began to plan.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

For the next week, Shinji observed the estate. He watched during the day as the adult residents came and went, but he saw no sign of the girl, nor, insofar as he could tell, of the person who owned the place. At night he'd sneak in looking for information, utilizing his training as Shinigami to slip past the alarm systems and the night watchmen with their dogs.

He began by mapping the place as well as he could. The great building was divided into three wings: one that evidently belonged to the owner and his family; one for the servants quarters, kitchens, and so on; and the one the little girl was in, which looked to have been remodeled into a cross between a laboratory and a hospital. He'd searched the big, official study in the owner's wing, but he could find no more than vague progress reports referring to the girl. On the fourth night, he hit jackpot. The scientists had left for the night without properly locking up a large records room. File cabinets lined two of the walls, while a third was dominated by a trio of computer monitors.

It was the work of a moment for Shinji to jimmy open the cabinets, and before long he was seated on the floor, piles of file folders around him. What he found added fuel to the anger growing in his gut, converting it from roaring fire to steady blaze.

The owner of the mansion was one of the wealthiest men in China, in all of Asia, in point of fact. Incredibly wealthy, and incredibly paranoid. He was well-protected from the usual threats – poison, gunfire, and other forms of assassination – but he had somehow figured out that there were paranormal dangers out there, ones he couldn't protect himself against. From what little he found on the man, Shinji guessed that the bigshot was just spirit-sensitive enough to realize that there was something big and dangerous there when presented with a Hollow.

Somehow, the man's flunkies had found the girl. Not much of her background was available, just that she'd been collected a year and a half prior from Tokyo at the age of seven, and that her name was Tsumugiya Ururu. No further details were given, and Shinji hoped like hell that the girl hadn't been traumatized by the 'collection'. There were a few pages of drafts for long-term plans, a layout of the girl's training as a bodyguard, suggestions for cover stories as the man's adopted daughter or personal assistant.

Once he'd finished those files, Shinji looked around at the room, frowning. He'd gone through a grand total of one drawer's worth of files, so what were the rest of these for? Standing, he paced from cabinet to cabinet, skimming the folders inside.

Medical records, detailing everything from vaccinations to major surgeries. Reports from the people assigned to teach Ururu hand to hand combat. Grades and copies of tests – the girl was apparently homeschooled. Reports and proposals from scientists trying to figure out what Ururu was responding to, perhaps in hope of developing another way to sense Hollows. Records and reports from psychologists with, and here Shinji nearly bent the cabinet before he caught himself, details of hypnosis treatments to condition automatic threat responses.

Shinji hadn't had a chance to do more than skim all the cabinets before the guards began their early morning rounds, and he had to leave. That day, he got as close to Ururu as he could and watched as she was fed breakfast, sent to lessons (math and basic computing, it looked like) and given over to a martial arts master after lunch to work on hand to hand combat. Shinji was impressed, despite himself – it looked like the girl was probably not far from mastery. After her combat training, Ururu was taken to one of the 'hospital' rooms, where she was given a thorough checkup and her reaction times tested.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

That night, Shinji broke into the record room again. This time, he spent hours poring over the details of what had happened to Ururu, and what 'treatments' were in the works. He'd only managed to get through half of them before he had to vacate or risk being caught by the scientists, so the following night he went back.

Shinji didn't think he'd ever been so grateful for his time doing the Fifth division's paperwork. He'd learned how to skim, to speed-read while still catching and retaining everything of importance. Most of what was planned for the child was tame – the standard immunizations, lesson plans, further martial arts lessons. There were some, though, that made him angry.

Surgeries to maximize Ururu's fighting abilities. Further hypnosis to encourage the mindless killer state Shinji had seen that first night. Psychological training to make her loyal to the man who owned the place and to him alone.

Shinji managed to resist his impulse to shred the files and retreated. He spent much of the day watching Ururu again, as she went to her lessons, both academic and martial arts, before being taken to have more tests run. As the girl was given her dinner, Shinji turned away. He needed to make a call.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Across two continents, Ushoda Hachigen sat in a small café, drinking coffee and trying to decide if he wanted a crepe. His thought process was interrupted when his cell phone rang, earning him dirty looks from the nearest patrons. Leaving more than enough money to cover his tab, he stepped outside.

"Ushoda Hachigen."

"Hachi, it's Shinji. I need a favor."

Hachi blinked. "Of course Shinji-san. May I ask –"

"How soon can you get to Beijing?" Shinji interrupted him.

"Ah, tomorrow morning at the earliest."

"Huh." Shinji seemed to be mulling that over. "Where are you?"

"Brussels, Shinji-san."

There was a slight groan from the other end. "Belgium. Figures. Right, I don't wanna go into details over the phone, but I've uncovered something nasty. I'm gonna need your help to deal with it."

"Understood. I should be there some time tomorrow morning. I'll contact you when I arrive?"

"Fine."

"Shinji-san, is there anything you can tell me about this? Give me some idea of what to prepare for?"

A long silence answered him. Hachi was beginning to think Shinji had hung up on him when the man spoke. "There's a kid who's gotten mixed up in some pretty bad shit. The girl's nine, and she's got nobody looking out for her, and no idea what she is."

"…Understood. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Hanging up, Hachi crossed the Grand Place at a quick walk, already planning what to take with him.

Unfortunately for Hachi's plans, there was no simple way to get to Beijing on such short notice. He was forced to fly from Brussels to London, where he had a five-hour layover before being put on a plane to Moscow. The flight out of Moscow didn't leave for a further sixteen hours, and so it was not quite two days after his conversation in Shinji that the big man finally deplaned in Beijing.

Shinji, noticeably tense, met him at the airport. Filling the bigger man in on everything from the day he'd first found the girl to the day of the phone call, he led the way to the mansion. They arrived around midday, and spent most of the day observing, Shinji pointing out the security but generally not saying much.

They managed to get a glimpse of Ururu when the child was sent to dinner. She was pushing along an IV stand, the needle hidden by a bandage around her left forearm.

Later that night, Shinji broke Hachi into the record room, and let the big man browse the files. At the end of the night, Hachi turned to the shorter Vizard. "Shinji-san."

"Yeah?"

"Once we've extracted the child, what are your plans?"

A slight grin crossed the ex-Captain's face. Hachi was in. "Urahara."

"Will Urahara-san be willing to take her?"

"Have you talked to Love recently? Say, within the past six months or so?" At Hachi's shake of the head, Shinji went on. "He found this kid in Kyoto, the family was being attacked by Hollows. Love was a little too late to save the parents, but he saved the kid. Turns out the kid's pretty spirit-sensitive, could see Love and everything. Anyway, when nobody claimed the kid, Love convinced Urahara to take him in. From what Love told me, the kid lives in the shop and does chores in exchange for a home and some training." Shinji's grin widened. "Apparently that scientist's a real soft touch."

Hachi nodded. It was acceptable. Besides, if Urahara couldn't or wouldn't care for Ururu himself, he would certainly know of a way to keep her out of the hands of any more powerful and paranoid people that might take advantage of her.

"So," Shinji continued, "I've got a few ideas, but to really make it work is probably gonna take a fair amount of kido. Any thoughts?"

"Perhaps a few."

"Excellent." Pushing away from the wall, Shinji led them back outside. "Oh, one thing. Be careful how you use your inner Hollow out here." At Hachi's look of confusion, he continued on. "First night out here, I borrowed a little from Old Man Pharaoh. Next thing I know, the kid's attacking me."

"You are certain it was the Hollow she sensed?"

"Positive." Shinji briefly detailed the girl's response. "I've done a couple of things as just a Shinigami since then, and she's not noticed."

"Understood."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

It took them two days to work out a plan they thought most likely to succeed. Given that they were going up against the best human security money could buy to rescue a girl who might take violent offense to their rescuing, and that they were operating with a handicap, the fact that it only took the two days was a resounding testament to their skills as field commanders. Granted, it had been years since they were leading operations in the field, but some habits stayed with you. Particularly when they were ones that might save your life.

In a series of shunpo steps timed to the second, Hachi broke the perimeter of the mansion, creating a distraction, before bastardizing a Tsuzuri Raiden to short out some of the connections in the on-site generators. Before long the damaged generators overheated trying to maintain functionality, and the entire complex was plunged into darkness.

At this point, Shinji slipped into Ururu's room. Thankfully the IV had been removed earlier in the day, and she wasn't hooked to medical equipment. All he had to do was use a healing kido to send her deeper into sleep before scooping her up and getting out of there.

He'd made it halfway down the hall when the power came back up. Apparently the place had been reconnected to the general power grid. Using the kido veils Aizen had once used on the Twelfth division grounds so many years ago, Shinji rendered himself and the girl invisible to the humans running around. Making it into the open air, he struck out for the airport.

Once Shinji and Ururu were out of the way, Hachi calmly used barriers to lock off rooms at random, shutting himself inside the records room. Removing some of the more interesting files, he placed them into a bag, then retreated to the door. "Hado no. 54: Haien." The file cabinets caught instantly, the metal transforming to so much molten slag on the floor. The computers received the same treatment, the smell of melted plastic filling the air. A little excessive, perhaps, but he was in the mood for dramatic gestures.

Calling down all the Bakudo he'd used, Hachi slipped quietly out of the mansion and followed Shinji. He met him in the parking lot of a rental car office near the airport. Ururu, wrapped in a blanket, slumbered in the backseat of a car. "Let's go," Shinji said. "We've got a ferry in Shanghai to make."

They moved as fast as they could, driving directly to Shanghai and onto the ferry to Osaka. Once on the ferry, Hachi coaxed Ururu out of her kido-induced slumber and ran a basic diagnostic. While he'd come to healing through his studies of kido, unlike most healers who did the reverse, he could handle just about anything short of major wounds or illness. During the diagnostic, he found and destroyed a microchip planted just under the skin between Ururu's shoulder blades.

The child was so polite and obedient that Shinji was more than a little creeped out. She seemed to have accepted this turn of events as some sort of training exercise, and Hachi spent hours trying to convince her that she was never going back. In the end, he made very little progress and could only hope that Urahara would be able to do something.

In Osaka, Shinji called Urahara.

"Ah, Shinji-san! What can I do for you?"

"I'm gonna need a favor, Kisuke. I've got a kid here who needs to hide, and who desperately needs to be trained."

There was a moment of silence from the other end of the line. "Shinji-san, I don't understand."

"Look, I don't wanna go into details over the phone, but some rich-as-sin ass was training her to become his personal guard. She's combat-capable and thoroughly screwed up. Look, can you at least see the girl?"

Kisuke sighed heavily. "I presume you are in Osaka?"

"Just got off the ferry. We'll be taking the train up."

"Then I will see you when you get here. I assume you remember how to get to the Shoten?"

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

They didn't actually make it to the Shoten until fairly late in the evening. Kisuke met them at the door, and led them through to the back rooms. Ururu was asleep again, Hachi carrying her on his back. Directing the larger Vizard to put Ururu on a futon, the shopkeeper turned a Look on Shinji.

"I would like that explanation now, Shinji-san."

Shinji sighed. "That's Tsumugiya Ururu. She's nine, though she doesn't look it, and for the past year and a half or so she's been being groomed to be a weapon." Continuing on, he described his first encounter with the girl and the week of scouting in detail, before going on to his decision to contact Hachi and the rescue mission. Hachi added in occasional comments, and passed over the bag of files he'd removed.

Urahara listened in silence, skimming the files. Once he'd finished, he stared at them blankly for a moment, then looked up. "I'll take care of her," he said softly.

Shinji raised an eyebrow. "You will?"

"I can't put her straight back into the system, she'd just be found again. And while I do have contacts who can make Tsumugiya Ururu disappear, she's in desperate need of training if she's going to survive." The storekeeper shrugged. "And if Tessai and I can handle Jinta, then we can definitely handle Ururu."

"Great." Shinji stood. "In that case, I'll be going."

"You're not staying?"

"Nah. I'll be on the next flight to LA I can catch."

Urahara glanced over at Hachi. "And you, Hachigen-san?"

"If I might stay the night, that would be appreciated," the big man said. "However, I would like to return to Brussels tomorrow morning."

"Tessai will be glad to have someone to talk shop with, anyway," Urahara commented.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

By the time Ururu woke up the next morning, both of the Vizard were gone. Instead of the huge man with pink hair and the skinny one with blond hair, she found herself confronted by a man wearing a green-and-white striped hat that kept his eyes in shadow.

"Good morning Ururu! My name is Urahara Kisuke…"

* * *

A/N: This one literally crept up and bit me. I hope you liked.

For those who have not read 'Drops in the Bucket', my Bleach drabble collection, this was an extension of one of the drabbles included in the Second Scroll. Number eight, to be exact.

To forestall any comparisons to other anime/manga: yes, this was heavily inspired by Black Cat. See top of page. For those of you who haven't read it, I'd recommend it as a good manga that made my biologist-self very happy.

Thank you **Rusting Roses** for beta-reading this.


End file.
